Asher understood that risk never disappeared. It only moved.
He stayed on his route, watching how the system behaved when no one thought they were being watched. That was when mistakes showed themselves. Not big ones. Small shortcuts. Quiet assumptions.
Most people followed the rules as written. They did their work, logged their results, and accepted limits when they were reached. That was enough to keep things stable.
A few didn't like that.
They didn't break rules. They didn't force changes. They waited. They gathered data. They built arguments that hadn't crossed a line yet.
Asher noticed them, but he didn't interfere.
Acting too early caused backlash. Acting too late caused damage. Timing mattered more than authority.
So he waited.
He moved through more systems. Some were simple. Others were complex but well managed. In each place, he checked the same things. Response time. Oversight behavior. Whether corrections were automatic or delayed by approval chains.
